Mayo County Council's non-binding motion to cease engagement with the department - a response to concerns about upcoming elections, requires close examination not slaps on the back. It's important to review council meeting notes and past statements to discern which councillors have been proactive or dismissive in voicing these issues over the year. This research is essential to determine who truly deserves credit and who, due to their inaction, should be voted out. There are maybe three or four out of the whole council who could actually pass this s*** test in my opinion.

For months, Mayo elected officials have faced misinformation, no updates, and no communication from the unelected head of housing and services in the county. They are on record pleading for statistics from a year ago, only to be brushed off. So, how does a motion to cease engagement with the department fix anything, when it was the head of the housing division who was engaging with the department and treating our councillors with contempt ?" The prick was giving them IPAS stats for July in November. The worst part of this is that the stats are Published weekly by IPAS and anyone with half a brain could have checked themselves.

Reminder. The department of children still haven't published a list of purchase orders over 20k for the last two quarters of 2023 most likely breaking their own statutory reporting guidelines. This list contains all IPAS and Ukrainian accomodation payments. https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/dfdadb-department-of-children-and-youth-affairs-purchase-orders-for-20000-o/#2023

IPAS release very good data and have become more transparent with statistics over the year. The main issue with these statistics is that they are released in formats suitable for reading or sharing, but not for analysis. While the government portrays the country as a Silicon Valley, statistics on pressing issues are released in formats difficult to extract and work with for data scientists and analysts. This could be due to obfuscation or simply inefficiency - take your pick. Our country needs a radical initiative on data transparency. Take crime statistics, for instance; all we usually get in the media is a top-level headline every 3 months, never a granular or historical analysis. This lack of detail lets the government off the hook on multiple issues. If the Department of Justice claims there's no link between X and Y, the public needs to demand they prove it with data and analytics, because it's all there.

Dig into your county development plans.

Wow. https://www.lobbying.ie/return/93307/immigrant-council-of-ireland

Lobbying Details for the immigrant council of Ireland |
https://www.lobbying.ie/organisation/272/immigrant-council-of-ireland?currentPage=7&pageSize=20&queryText=&subjectMatters=&subjectMatterAreas=&publicBodys=&jobTitles=&returnDateFrom=&returnDateTo=&period=&dpo=&client=&responsible=&lobbyist=&lobbyistId=272

You can see how this shower are directly lobbying O Gorman multiple times a year on multiple issues from hate speech to using AI. They are advising the council's also.

The councillors have no power. The entire shitshow is the department of integration, the immigrant council of Ireland and the unelected directors of services in each council. Oh and we are paying for it with our taxes.